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School lunches

It's just as important that your child eat healthy lunches and snacks at school as it is when she's at home. Nutritious school lunches are important as they will provide the fuel for her learning. Try encouraging your child to be involved in the preparation of her lunch each day - if she has a say into what's going into her lunchbox each day, she'll be more likely to eat it.

Because school lunch time is short, and your child may be more interested in playing with her friends than eating, it's best to stick to a lunch that:

can be eaten cold

doesn't need refrigeration other than a cold pack

isn't hard to handle

isn't going to make the rest of her lunch smell

For all these reasons, it's no wonder that the humble sandwich is still the mainstay of most schoolyard lunches.

Six of the best for the lunch box:

When you're packing the lunch box, try to include:

Fruit

Dairy - yoghurt and cheese are the easy choices here

Protein - try to put a piece of ham on the sandwich, or wrap up a cooked chicken leg

Carbohydrate - bread of course!

Vegetables - carrot sticks or strips of red pepper are popular

Water

Bread, in the form of a sandwich, is the most common lunch box food for kids. If your child is stuck on having a sandwich each day but is sick of what you are giving her, try changing the type of bread you put her vegemite on. There's a range of breads that include: